Salary Survey Extra: Deep Focus on Okta Certified Administrator

Salary Survey Extra is a series of dispatches that give added insight into the findings of our annual Salary Survey. These posts contain previously unpublished Salary Survey data.

Among its many uses, cloud computing lets companies and organizations connect workers to remotely hosted productivity tools and apps. Instead of using a version of Microsoft Office stored on your personal work computer, you connect through the cloud to a remotely hosted version of Microsoft Office.

One challenge of this approach is managing and safeguarding cloud access. How does the service provider verify the identity of individual users, and how does it keep their access secure? That challenge is addressed by cloud identity technology, and Okta is a leading provider of cloud identity management.

Given its more than 5,000 integrations to date, Okta is so widely used that the company offers certification to professionals who specialize in managing its technology. Okta Certified Administrator, No, 15 on this year’s Salary Survey 75 list, is the middle rung of the Okta certification ladder, level 2 out of 3.

Here’s what the salary picture looks like for Okta Certified Administrator holders who responded to the Salary Survey:

All U.S. Respondents Average Annual Salary: $133,850 Median Annual Salary: $130,000How satisfied are you with your current salary? Completely Satisfied: 5 percent Very Satisfied: 54.2 percent Satisfied: 33.7 percent Not Very Satisfied: 3.8 percent Not At All Satisfied: 3.3 percent

All Non-U.S. Respondents Average Annual Salary: $63,600 Median Annual Salary: $32,500How satisfied are you with your current salary? Completely Satisfied: 7.1 percent Very Satisfied: 21.4 percent Satisfied: 57.1 percent Not Very Satisfied: 8 percent Not At All Satisfied: 6.4 percent

The largest single body of Okta Certified Administrator holders in the survey is made up of U.S. residents (77.4 percent of those surveyed). Somewhat unusually, all other responses came in from just three countries, Australia, the Netherlands, and Romania.

Most Okta Certified Administrator holders who responded to the survey are men (83.9 percent of those surveyed), but the 16 percent of respondents who are women is a strong indication that cloud identity management may not be as generally impenetrable to women as some other IT specializations are. We didn’t hear from any very young professionals, but most of those who chimed in are closer to the “exiting college” end of the spectrum than to the “entering retirement” point, with 38.7 percent of those surveyed between the ages of 25 and 34, and 39.1 percent between the ages of 35 and 44. Most of the rest (19 percent of respondents) are between the ages of 45 and 54, though there is a tiny “gold watch” contingent between the ages of 55 and 64 (3.2 percent).

More than three-fourths of all the Okta Certified Administrator holders in the survey are college-educated, with the highest level of education attained by most being either a bachelor’s degree (58.1 percent of those surveyed), master’s degree (19.4 percent), or associate’s (two-year) degree (9.7 percent). The rest either completed technical training but hold no college degree (10 percent of those surveyed), or stepped away from formal education after completing a high school diploma (2.8 percent).

We didn’t hear from a single Okta Certified Administrator holder who is unemployed, or is employed part-time: 100 percent of those surveyed have full-time jobs. That’s not unprecedented in the history of these Deep Focus articles, but it is relatively rare. The workday for most included some extra time, with 51.6 percent of those surveyed working between 41 and 50 hours per week, while 22.2 percent put in more than 50 hours. Just 19.7 percent of respondents have a standard 40-hour schedule, while a fortunate 6.5 percent are at their desks between 31 and 39 hours per week.

Generally speaking, there are Okta Certified Administrator holders up and down the standard workplace org chart, but most are either senior managers (12.8 percent of those surveyed), managers (25.8 percent), or senior specialists (35.5 percent). The outliers are at the director level (6.5 percent of respondents), and among specialists (9.7 percent) and rank-and-file employees (9.7 percent).

Most Okta Certified Administrator holders are Okta newcomers, with 58.1 percent having worked in a role that utilizes one or more of their certified skills for between zero years (1 to 11 months) and 2 years. The next-largest group is the 22.6 percent of respondents who have been plying their Okta certified skills for between 3 and 5 years, with the rest slotting in at between 6 and 8 years (6.5 percent of those surveyed), between 9 and 10 years (3.2 percent), or more than 10 years (9.6 percent).

Finally, here’s the view of Okta Certified Administrator holders on key questions from the survey about how certification impacts job performance:

At my current job I use skills learned or enhanced through certification: Several times a day: 83.9 percent Several times a week: 10.3 percent Several times a month: 3.9 percent Occasionally: [No responses] Rarely: 1.9 percent